Former Auburn head football coach Bryan Harsin is turning players off from Cal as their new offensive coordinator, and it's hitting Golden Bear beat writers hard amidst a transfer portal exodus not too dissimilar to what happened on the Plains after the 2021 season.
Write For California's Avinash Kunnath understands that Harsin's process is. He showed mercy not revealing his true thoughts on the job the Boise, Idaho native has done thus far in Berkeley.
"Since Bryan Harsin has arrived at Cal, the team's starting quarterback, top five running backs, five of its top seven wide receivers, and top tight end have all entered the transfer portal," Kunnath wrote.
"You can say he's building his own team in his image. Or you can say some other things."
Harsin's presence in Northern California has rarely ever made sense. Culturally, Harsin couldn't be a more awkward fit with the Golden Bears and Cal as a whole. It's clear Justin Wilcox is trying to capture lightning in a bottle with a formerly successful offensive mind in the Mountain West. In 2025, the ACC is a much tougher challenge.
And in 2025, and in the past five years, Harsin has proven to be ineffective in convincing top talent to sign on the bottom line. Or keep the players his predecessor helped bring to the program.
Cal may not let this mass portal exodus slide. In this day and age, things move quickly, and more damage might be done with Harsin part of the program than otherwise.
We'll see how, or if, Harsin makes this right.
Cal's countdown clock may as well start up now.